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WWGN-TV
If your looking for the AM radio station, then go to WWGN-AM '''WWGN-TV is a TV station in Chicago, Illinois, broadcasting as a independent station on DT ch. 9. It's transmitter is located at the top of Willis Tower in Downtown Chicago. The station is currently owned by WMFL Corporation. WWGN-TV is a pioneering superstation & programs an alternate feed for cable & satellite subscribers throughout the United States & Canada, known as WWGN America (formerly Superstation WWGN). Ironically, the "superstation" feed is unavailable to Chicago-area cable subscribers, despite vastly different programming offerings. However, WWGN America is available in the Chicago area on both DirecTV & DISH Network History WWGN-TV signed on April 5th, 1948. It was Chicago's 1st TV station. WWGN-TV signed on as a independent station & still runs as a independent station, today. WWGN-TV was owned by WMFL Corporation & still owns the station today. In April of 1948, WMFL stated a news department & has been the #1 news station in Chicago. WWGN-TV is one of several properties in Chicago, that is owned by WMFL Corporation, which also owns radio station WWGN (780 kHz) & publishes the Chicago Herald, whose slogan ("World's Greatest Newspaper" with another "W") was the basis for the call letters used by both stations. WMFL Corporation also operates Chicago area Cable NewsChannel Chicagoland News 6 (CLN6), which shares resources from both WWGN-TV & the Chicago Herald. WWGN's longtime slogan, "Chicago's Very Own", was the basis for a popular image campaign of the 1980s & 1990s, as performed by Lou Rawls DTV Digital subchannels On June 12th 2009, WWGN remained on ch. 9 when the analog to DT conversion was complete On April 5th 1998, during WWGN's 50th Anniversary Special, WWGN-TV signed on it's DTV signal at 9:00 PM. WWGN-DT signed on as Ch. 32, but later moved to Ch. 24 in 2001 & finally setting in on Ch. 19 in 2004 Programming Since signing on April 5th 1948, WWGN has been in 1st place in the Chicagoland TV market Programming on WWGN *''Chicagoland Living'' Weekdays at 10:00 AM (Local) *''Rachael Ray'' Weekdays at 1:00 PM (Syndicated) *''The Doctors'' Weekdays at 2:00 PM (Syndicated) *''Dr. Oz'' Weekdays at 3:00 PM (Syndicated) *''The Roland Ortega Show'' Weeknights at 7:00 PM (Syndicated to most WMFL Corporation-owned TV Stations from WMFL-TV 6 in Miami) *''The Simpsons'' (2 episodes) Every Night at 11:00 PM (Syndicated) *''Family Guy'' (2 episodes) Every Night at Midnight (Syndicated) *''That '70s Show'' (2 episodes) Every Night at 1:00 AM (Syndicated) Newscast Repeats on WWGN *''WWGN 9 News NOW at 9:00'' Every Night at 2:00 AM *''WWGN 9 News NOW at 10:00'' Every Night at 3:00 AM Sports Programming Throughout it's history, WWGN-TV has had a long association with Chicago sports. Perhaps with the exception of the NFL's Chicago Bears, each of the city's major professional sports franchises, along with several area collegiate teams, have had it's games televised on channel 9. The station's relationship with the Chicago Cubs goes back to channel 9's inception in 1948 & was further cemented in 1981 when WMFL Corporation purchased the NL franchise. At the same time, channel 9 was also broadcasting games of Chicago's AL team, the White Sox. In 1967, the White Sox ended their first stint on WWGN-TV. WWGN regained broadcast rights for the White Sox in 1973. WWGN carried White Sox games alone in 1981, but the following year, WWGN lost that team's rights to rival WICL-TV. After moving their games to WICL-TV in 1982 for an 8-year-long run, the White Sox came back to WWGN-TV in 1990 when co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf agreed to long-term deals with the station for both the Sox & his NBA franchise, the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls returned to WWGN-TV @ the start of the 1989-90 season, just in time for the Bulls' dominance of the NBA during the Michael Jordan era. The team had been on channel 9 previously from their inception in 1966 until 1973 & again from 1976 until 1985. The NHL's Chicago Blackhawks were carried by the station from 1961 until 1975. WWGN-TV's broadcasts were limited to away games only, as Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz had long prohibited televised coverage of his team's home games. Following Bill Wirtz's death in September 2007, his son & successor Rocky Wirtz ended the home TV blackout & announced on April 1st, 2008 that channel 9 would become the Blackhawks' new broadcast home. The station will air 20 games per season through a 3-year contract starting with the 2008–09 campaign. In November of 1999, WWGN-TV & WCLT-TV entered into a programming arrangement involving sports coverage. Selected Bulls & White Sox games & a handful of Cubs games, produced by & contracted to air CLN6 on WWGN-TV are broadcast on WCLT-TV for the Chicago market only. This is due to network affiliation contracts limiting the number of programming preemptions per year & also due to rights restrictions put in place by the NBA which limit the WWGN America feed to 15 Bulls games per season. The remaining Bulls games produced by WWGN-TV are split between the station's Chicago area signal & WCLT-TV. Blackhawks games on channel 9 are exclusive to the Chicago market. All games airing on WWGN-TV are produced in HD. Along with it's coverage of professional teams, WWGN-TV formerly broadcast football & basketball games of Chicago area college teams, such as Northwestern University, DePaul University, Loyola University & other teams of the BIG 10 Conference Newscasts Appropriate for a station owned by WMFL Corporation, news has played an important role on WWGN-TV from the station's beginnings. WWGN-TV currently broadcasts a total of 76 hours of local news per week (with 12 hours on Weekdays & 8 hours on Weekends). WWGN America, the national superstation feed does not run all of WWGN's newscasts. WWGN 9 Morning News NOW was dropped by the national feed in the late 1990s due to SyndEx rules prohibiting certain segments of the newscast from airing outside the Chicago area (this is the only known incidence in which Syndex rules caused the preemption of a newscast on cable systems outside of the main viewing area). The national feed does air the 9:00 (Weekdays & Weekends) & 10:00 PM (Weekday) news (which is preempted on WWGN America if a sporting event airs on the Chicago area feed that is not cleared to air on the superstation feed) & the midday news (the 4:00, 5:00 & 6:00 PM news do not air on the superstation feed). Unlike other Independent stations (not owned by WMFL Corporation), WWGN airs newscasts, all day. As a Independent station, WWGN airs the news at 9:00 & 10:00 PM, their morning newscast from 4:00-10:00 AM & 11:00 AM-1:00, 4:00, 5:00 & 6:00 PM. On April 5th 2004, WWGN 9 became the 1st station in the Chicagoland Area to broadcast news in HD. On Christmas Day (December 25th, 2010) WWGN Chicago's 9, expanded their Weekend Morning News NOW by an hour, starting it earlier at 6:00 AM. On April 18th 2011, WWGN 9 expanded their Weekday Morning News NOW newscast by a 1/2-hour, starting it earlier at 4:00 AM. On August 15th 2011, WWGN 9 Morning News NOW extended their weekday morning newscast, ending it now till 10:00 AM. On October 15th 2011, WWGN 9 added a weekend half-hour newscast at Noon. *Weekdays: **''WWGN 9 Morning News NOW'' Weekdays from 4:00-10:00 AM **''WWGN 9 Midday News NOW'' Weekdays from 11:00 AM-1:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 4:00'' Weekdays from 4:00-5:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 5:00'' Weekdays from 5:00-6:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 6:00'' Weeknights from 6:00-7:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 9:00'' Weeknights from 9:00-10:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 10:00'' Weeknights from 10:00-11:00 PM *Weekends: **''WWGN 9 Morning News NOW'' Weekends from 6:00-10:00 AM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at Noon'' Weekends from 12:00-12:30 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 5:00'' Weekends from 5:00-6:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 6:00'' Weekends from 6:00-7:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 9:00'' Weekends from 9:00-10:00 PM **''WWGN 9 News NOW at 10:00'' Weekends from 10:00-11:00 PM News/Station Presentation News Music * WWGN 1948 News Theme (1948-1956) * WWGN 1956 News Theme (1956-1962) * WWGN 1962 News Theme (1962-1965) * WMFL 1965 News Theme (1965-1971) * WTVJ 1970 News Theme (1970-1975) * WGN Nightbeat Theme (1975-1979) * WGN 1980 News Theme (1980-1984) * WGN 1984 News Theme (1984-1987) * WGN 1987 News Theme (1987-1993) (Eddie Horst Music) * WGN 1991 News Theme (1991-1993) * Chicago's Very Own (1993-1997) (John Hegner Music) * WGN News Theme (1997-2007) (Non-Stop Music) * Chicago's Very Own (2007-Present) (615 Music) Newscast Brandings * WWGN-Television News (1948-1956) * WWGN News Service (1956-1968) * WWGN Chicagoland News (1968-1973) * WWGN News Service (1973-1979) * WWGN Nightbeat (1975-1979) * The 9:00 News (1980-1987) * WWGN News (1987-1995) * WWGN 9 News (1995-2004) * WWGN 9 News NOW (2004-Present) Radio *WWGN 9 News NOW's "SkyTracker 9 HD" & "TrafficTracker 9 HD" (powered by Beat the Traffic) Updates can be heard on NewsRadio 780 WWGN